Best First Hours

Bit.Trip Runner

The era of digital distribution has been good to many smaller
developers. One needs to look no further than the Minecraft success story to see
just how fruitful the budget game market can be.

Even on Nintendo's meager WiiWare service, some have found
the opportunity to shine. Gaijin Games, a small studio founded by a former LucasArts employee, has found
acclaim with its Bit.Trip series. With six games in the series
released within two years, each Bit.Trip title is built on the same
foundation of rhythm and psychedelic retro aesthetics but offers a
different gameplay hook. Beat, the first title, is like the love
child of Pong and a laser show. Core is more like a tricky Guitar Hero
with a D-pad. Void is an avoid-and-collect using the nunchuk's
control stick. Fate is a rail shooter utilizing the Wii remote's
pointer. And Flux, the final chapter in the Bit.Trip saga,
returns to an experience similar to the choreographed Pong performance
that birthed the series in Beat.

I recently acquired Bit.Trip Runner, the fourth game released (and the
third I've played, after Void and Beat). It happens to be the one that
generates the most buzz in the gaming community. Runner certainly
sounded appealing to me when I was introduced to it as a "rhythm-based platformer." My experience with the game, however, came
somewhat short of my high hopes.

Bit.Trip Runner stars Commander Video, a...thing?...who apparently likes
to run. He jogs automatically from left to right across bizarre 3D
pixel-art landscapes, avoiding obstacles and grabbing gold while
chiptune beats play in the background. There are a small set of rules
that will lead players to success. Jump [2 button] over small
obstructions. Kick [1] apart large barriers. Slide [down] under hanging
obstacles. Launch [up] from spring pads. Block [right] incoming pong
balls. Obey these laws and you will run to the end of each stage.
Collect all the gold throughout, and you'll get a chance at a silent
bonus stage full of gold. Fail even once, however, and you will
immediately start over from the beginning.

Music has always been Bit.Trip's backbone, and the tunes in Runner
are up to the task. Though a few songs used in the menu and
credits are borrowed from Anamanaguchi, the chiptune-rock band behind
the Scott Pilgrim game's excellent soundtrack, the majority of the
musical legwork was undertaken in conjunction with Runner's development.
This was by necessity: each of the player's actions correspond with an
accompanying musical flourish. Jumping over a pit produces a quick note.
Launching from a spring pad yields a rising series of eighths. The
effect is a blippy melody that, when added to the accompaniment, creates
a joyous, lifting tune for Commander Video's steady trek.

Likewise, the visuals are an absolute delight. Vibrant, trippy, and
stylish, Runner brings Bit.Trip out of the spacey Atari
aesthetic of its three predecessors and appears more like 3D renderings
of sprites, similar to the look of 3D Dot Game Heroes but more
dreamlike than nostalgic. The visuals speak better for themselves than I
can describe, however, so do yourself a solid and have a look at some
screenshots.

The nature of rhythm games dictates that the gameplay is critically
intertwined with music and aided by visuals. In the genre's finest
moments, the harmony between game mechanics and audio feedback leads the
player to feel as though they are playing music rather than a video
game, or that their success in the video game is due to musical
aptitude. I've lost myself in The Beatles: Rock Band more than a few
times, and there's a moment when each demanding minigame in Rhythm
Heaven just clicks, allowing me to succeed even with eyes closed.

Much to my dissatisfaction, I never experienced such a feeling in Bit.Trip Runner. In fact, I think my mood while playing the game would
best be described as "stressful" and "disconnected." It's not easy to
explain why, but I'll try anyway.

In most rhythm games, the timing of the player's successful input is
synchronized with the game's prescribed musical output and aided by
prompts on screen. In Guitar Hero, you'll successfully complete YYZ by
mimicking the timing that Alex Lifeson used to create the master track.
The note highway on screen dictates which fret to use and also provides
additional aid to timing, like a metronome. The result is a very
convincing deception that you are creating the music rather than
mimicking it.

Now imagine playing a version of Guitar Hero where, as usual, the red
fret and green frets are perfectly timed with the music and the note
highway. On the other hand, the blue fret must be activated half a beat
before the blue note on the highway reaches the play line to be
successful, delaying the musical feedback beyond when you press the button.
Additionally, the yellow fret must be pressed a full beat ahead of the
note highway meeting and corresponding sound reward.

This is sort of what it's like to play Bit.Trip Runner. Some of the
actions, like soaring from springs or blocking pong balls, are perfectly
timed with the music. Others, like leaping over pits or kicking
barriers, require the player's input to be anticipatory to the music.
The pits and barriers make contact with Commander Video at the moment
where the musical cue would play: if you press the jump button as the
corresponding note plays, you're too late. In order continue
successfully, you'll have to activate the proper maneuver (jumping or
kicking) prior to the corresponding note and meeting with the incoming
obstacle.

The result is the feeling that I wasn't playing a rhythm game at all.
Quite the opposite, in fact: I actually had to avoid getting caught in the rhythm. When in sync with the extremely catchy tunes, I saw more
failure than success. I had to consciously tune out the music in order
to succeed. I even muted my TV at times and saw improvement.

Obstructions to success can come from the visual design as well. The
bold, busy color of the scenery often bleeds into the foreground action
and hides incoming objects. Further, the foreground utilizes a scrolling
polygonal path for the sprite-based Commander Video; collision points
between the 2D hero and his 3D surroundings can be a bit unclear,
especially during the more frenzied jump marathons later in the game.

All of this combines to create a feeling that I was only succeeding in spite of the audiovisual design rather than due to it. I can't imagine a
more damning takeaway from a rhythm game. Alarmingly, I felt more
comfortable in the gold-collecting bonus stages, where the music is
absent and the visual design is boiled down into a very basic 2D
display, comparable to Pitfall on the Atari 2600.

Final Thoughts

Bit.Trip Runner is beautiful when boiled down to its base elements. The
infectious music, imaginative visuals, and simple die-and-retry gameplay
model are all strong foundations upon which to build. Unfortunately,
the combination thereof produced one of the most unsettling games I can
remember playing. The relief I felt after finishing off the final boss
(two hours after starting the game) was easily the most satisfying point
in the experience.

Clearly, however, my experience is not the norm. The game is highly
regarded by most major review outlets and evangelized user reviews. And since
it costs only $8 on WiiWare (and you can probably find it cheaper on
Steam these days), my disappointment doesn't extend very far into my wallet. If you
have a genuine interest in Bit.Trip Runner, and if my traumatizing tale
didn't completely scare you away, you might as well plunk down the
eight bucks and see if you're less dependent on the traditional rhythm
game setup than I am. If you end up enjoying the experience, there's
plenty to keep you busy: 33 standard stages (each lasting between 30 and
120 seconds when successful and several more minutes of failure prior)
and a bonus stage for each, plus three boss stages. For those attempting
to earn a perfect run through every standard and bonus stage, expect to
spend several hours jogging with Commander Video.

Despite my unfavorable experience with the game, I actually hope to
revisit Bit.Trip Runner someday so that I can absorb its transcendent
audiovisual splendor all over again. I just refuse to be the one playing
it.

Comments

Yeah, that was my exact problem with the game. I tried playing with the sound on and the sound muted, and played far better with the sound muted. I would love the game if only it asked me to press buttons in time with the music, but it doesn’t – the music can only be appreciated by a spectator, not the player. The music is just a distraction to the player.

Sadly, the sequel Runner2 has the same problem. At least the standalone music-only soundtracks to the games are nice – though not as nice as the in-game music with the obstacle-clear sound effects.

BTW, I played through this about a week ago and entirely agree with this review (to the point where I didn't bother making my own). Except it was even more frustrating for me, in fact probably the most frustrating game experience I can remember. I can't remember a game before making me think I'm just bad at games, but this managed it. The complete lack of controllable horizontal movement and auditory distractions made it so painful for me. The game tries to visually trick you as well, to the point where you have to basically mentally map out your movement through the stages in advance and can't rely on reaction a good deal of the time. I was full of so much hate.

It's not even that it was a tough game (it was, thanks to the one-hit-and-you're-done style), it's that it is built like a rhythm game but punishes you for getting into the groove. I liked Beat and Void quite a bit though. Might go for Fate and Flux someday, too.